WHITNEY'S VICTIMS

IT'S NOT RIGHT AND IT'S NOT OKAY
d14_19981809
THE 2009 UNITED NATIONS World Drug Report marks "the end of the first century of drug control (it all started in Shanghai in 1909)." 

Your correspondent hasn't so much as smoked a cigarette in his lifetime, never mind snorted a line of coke or popped a tab of E. Of course, I'm an alcoholic, but societythe law says that's okay. But it seems to me that the line of coke many of you will snort this weekend has left a devastating trail of human misery in order to reach your nose. Call me righteous, but I don't know how you can live with yourself.

Yes - you. (In a similar vein - excuse the pun - wealthy Westerners like Whitney Houston are lauded as victors triumphing over illness. A self-inflicted illness born out of pure selfishness and stupidity. The real victims are the people in these pictures. Their blood is on Whitney's hands.) These pictures, from The Boston Globe's ever-reliable The Big Picture series, illustrate the reality of illegal drug use around the world. Top: A man killed by a bullet to the head lies dead in the dirt in Tijuana, Mexico, in August this year. Make sure to check out the rest of the series...

d35_20681821

Above, the body of California state government official Rogelio Sanchez hangs beaten, naked and castrated in Mexico, earlier this month.

d16_19946475

Above, in Afghanistan, an opium addict offers his grandson his pipe (July 13, 2009).

d05_19943185

You are looking at the severed head of an unidentified man, above, pictured in August this year in Mexico.

d17_19946473

Female opium addicts in a house in Afghanistan, pictured in July this year. Is the scene really any different to middle class housewives anaesthetising themselves with a bottle of Pinot Grigio?

7 comments:

Q, Truly said...

wow garcon

the severed head on the windshield pretty much just took me out for the morning

KAOS said...

Yeah... it's not nice. The Big Picture actually censor those violent images, so that you have to click to view them after a warning.

Daddy Squeeze Me! said...

WOW!!! THIS IS FUCKIN WILD. I STILL CANT BELIEVE ITS REAL!!!

Taylor Siluwe said...

I saw that head pic on your flickr page and I wondered what the story was behind it.

The world can be a truly sucky place. No wonder we all wanna zone out in a fog of alcohol and narcotics.

Mike said...

I like Whitney's version better "It's not right, but it's OKAY!" I've tired almost, but hey.... westerners are stupid, me included.

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad I did a stint at the state AG's office for a couple years. I saw all manner of gruesome pictures from crime scenes.

You develop a sort of gallows humor working in that environment. There was one where we were all puzzling over a picture of a guy stuffed in the trunk of car. We could figure out if it was his head or his ass until I pointed out the Joe Boxer on the band.

Of course every Friday night we'd drink ourselves into a stupor. Cops and prosecutors are some of the most heavy drinkers I've ever met. That's how I developed my tolerance for alcohol.

And BTW, I was working there during the most heinous event in U.S. history, the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001. That got the office moving let me tell you.

Unknown said...

The images...WOW!

 
◄Design by Pocket